During the summer of 2016 I was struck by a very short event that I have witnessed a number of times during my lifetime, but for some reason I paid more attention to it and reflected quite a bit on what I saw and heard. The event was the last game that three young ladies played in their high school career, specifically the last high school softball game played by Kim Rounds, Madison Monroe, and Megan Gavin. Kim had a number of “last games” over the course of her senior season as she played volleyball, basketball, and ran track. At the end of each season she dealt with the “last one.” Tears and sadness marked each event for her, as well as her senior teammates in each sport. The players get hugs from teammate, and perhaps a hug or handshake from their coach. They go home at night and have the support of their parents. They also deal with that emotions of a loss, because in most sports in Iowa, unless you are a state champion, your last game happens because your team gets beat. But then a funny thing happens after those games during the school year: they go back to school, hang out with their friends, and for some, start practice for a new season. You see, for some that really wasn’t the end.
Softball is a little different. It takes place in the summer and once it is over, it is over. One of the unique things about Iowa is that for those kids that play softball and baseball, they get about a two month extension on high school. At practice, on bus rides, and at games they still interact with classmates and other students, and in a way prolonging that phase of their life. And then for every senior player except those on four baseball teams and five softball teams, they get beat and their season is over. For the girls that play softball at NFV, many times those painful losses have taken place on the road, but they had a very cool tradition for those who minutes earlier just finished their career — the hug line. I have no idea when it started, but when Coach Lape started coaching softball again, after he said a few words to the girls after the loss — made a special point to thank the seniors — the girls on the team formed a line along side the bus and the senior(s) hugged their way down the line. Yep, tears and laughs and a few words were spoken, as they moved from one teammate to the next. It seemed to lessen the sting of the loss a bit, and maybe it also cushioned the reality that the senior would not take the field again for NFVHS.
The other thing about softball and baseball is that for those ending their career on the diamond, there was not school to go to the next Monday. There was not practice for the next sport as the seasons changed. Perhaps there was a team supper or something to hand out letters and awards, but those moments truly defined that an athlete’s high school career was over. One night they are scratching the dirt in the batter’s box with their cleats or sliding head first into second base and the next next day they go on with the rest of their life. I have to believe that’s tougher than ending things on the wrestling mat or the basketball court.
In the case of our three ladies on the 2016 TigerHawk softball team, Madison would play more softball in college as she went off to Ellsworth as a member of their team. And Megan would continue playing softball at Upper Iowa. So the game goes on for those two, but they are the exception rather than the rule. Most high school athletes never compete again once they walk off the playing field for the last time. I remember a particularly close-knit bunch group of high school football players about a dozen years ago who camped out on their home football field on a Thursday night before the last game they would ever play on that field again. Most of them played another sport later in their senior year, but they had formed such close bonds as players on that team that they wanted to savor that last time.
I am biased as baseball and softball are very important to me and my family. In my case I played my last high school baseball game and watched movers pack a truck the next day as my mom, brother, and I filled up our pickup with suitcases to join my dad in our move from my hometown of Oakland to Lincoln, Nebraska. Maybe that is why I am a little more sentimental because it was really over for me! There are people that I was close to that I never saw again after that last game! I hope that as long as Coach Lape coaches the softball team that he keeps that “hug line” in place for the girls who really do give up a lot by dedicating their summer to playing the game because it’s over before you know it and it’s kind of nice to have that shoulder to cry on.
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